Video sharing web sites host numerous videos sourced by users or content providers. Internet users may view the videos by visiting the video sharing web site, or by accessing an external site linked to one of the videos stored on the video sharing web site.
The video sharing web site operator may be incentivized to augment the serving of videos with shared content. Shared content may be directed towards goods or services, and include information about the goods or services and/or meta data associated with the goods or services. The meta data may include a link to an external web site, serving additional information about the goods or services.
The shared content may be incorporated instream along with the presentation of the video. Thus, if a user accesses a video, the shared content may be played before or during the presentation of the video.
The contributors of videos, and the operator of the video sharing web site may decide which videos include a monetization amount. Thus, if a contributor uploads a video, a decision may be made to monetize the video. The actual monetization may be determined on a basis of the number of video views. Additionally, the monetization of the content may be contingent on whether a user of the video sharing web site clicks-through the shared content.
The video sharing web site operator may also determine to include additional videos to be selected by the user viewing an original video. For example, while a user is viewing an original video, thumbnails and text descriptions of additional videos may be presented simultaneously, or directly after the viewing of the original video.
The selection of these additional videos may be determined based on a relevance to the original video being watched, and a monetization value associated with the video. Thus, the video sharing web site may maximize revenue by serving additional videos that may have an increased chance in leading to monetization (i.e. the user selecting a link to watch one of the additional videos presented).
Additionally, experiments may be performed on various users in regards to the instream shared content. The video sharing web site may maintain a probability of leaving the web site based on a user's interaction with the instream shared content. Thus, based on the experiments, various data may be collected about the user's interaction with instream shared content. For example, this data may include the likelihood the user leaves the video sharing web site, the likelihood the user skips the shared content, and the like.